“America’s military has no preordained right to victory on the battlefield," captures the theme of SecDef Mattis’ new National Defense Strategy. 

After almost two decades of focusing on limited wars and non-state threats, SecDef Jim Mattis has made clear that the U.S. faces “the reemergence of long-term, strategic competition” with Russia and China...and needs to shift focus accordingly.

Of particular note is the SecDef’s concern that the training of our officer and NCO talent has “stagnated...at the expense of lethality and ingenuity.” This thoughtful review of the National Defense Strategy by LTG (ret) Barno and Dr. Bensahel is worth your time. 
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For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more.

In addition to searching for ever more lightweight and more lethal systems, the Pentagon leadership is considering a major overhaul of how infantry units are manned and trained.

Taking lessons from Special Forces operators like the Navy SEALs and Army Delta Forces, the Pentagon is considering raising the age requirements, developing simulator and live-fire training regimes as comprehensive as training Top Gun pilots and fostering greater unit stability through changes to personnel rotations.

Considering that only 4% of the services are the actual warfighters at the very tip of the spear in the Army and Marines, this can be done at relatively little cost. Several of our DTA investments are in the simulator sector, and we will watch for more. 

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Made more timely by the recent nerve agent attack in the U.K., DARPA is exploring the concept of monitoring for biological or chemical agents, not just from hair and clothing samples but also from the body’s epigenetic markers.

While DNA doesn’t change, it does record modifications that can leave a time-stamped biography of an individual’s exposure to various pathogens. This is a very new field, but we will monitor for your investment opportunities. 

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Some 54 million miles from Earth is the Bennu asteroid, large enough to destroy life on Earth in the unlikely event of an impact when it comes near Earth in 2135. W

hile it may sound like the plot of an improbable Bruce Willis movie, NASA and two Energy Department weapons labs have designed a spacecraft capable of tackling a massive asteroid. The Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response (HAMMER) would be capable of delivering an 8.8-ton “impactor” or intercepting the asteroid with an on-board nuclear device.

While the odds of major asteroid strike on the Earth are exceedingly remote, as we say in the gun culture, when you need one, you need it very badly. 

​Click here for more on the HAMMER.

Underscoring the president’s recent comments about a potential new Space Force, the recently published Worldwide Threat Assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence highlighted the rising threats to U.S. military and commercial space systems.

The Pentagon has made space a top priority in their 2019 defense budget request, and the U.S. Air Force has requested a 33% increase in its R&D budget for space systems. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson explained, “As we shift to space as a warfighting domain... Our adversaries know how much the U.S. depends on its space systems.”

We described the importance of space in our first issue of DTA, and several of our portfolio companies provide you with exposure to space technology. We will continue to look for more. 

​Click here for more details on space as a domain priority.

Most of our readers will know that how long it takes for an injured service member to receive medical care is often the single most important factor in whether they live or die.

Even as our casualty evacuation systems and forward medical treatment stations constantly train to reduce response time, DARPA is looking at a solution from the other side — how to slow down time itself for the injured.

Taking their cue from organisms that can slow their own metabolic processes under stress, DARPA scientists are working on a Biostasis program looking to develop ways to slow down the biochemical processes in cells and tissues to buy more time for medical intervention to our wounded.

​This is just beginning, but we will watch for investable opportunities. Click here for more.

Recently, U.S. diplomats in Cuba became sick - some even with brain damage - from some form of sonic weapon. Sounds like science fiction, but it’s not.

San Diego-based American Technologies Corporation has developed an acoustic weapon that shoots “sonic bullets” that are capable of bringing a person to their knees, or even killing them. The military applications are huge.

Remember the caves in Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden and his soldiers hid out? This sonic weapon would have forced them out of the caves without having one soldier enter. They would have run out with hands over their ears, claims the maker.

​To the U.S. Army, that’s music to their ears. Learn more here.

The U.S. Defense establishment was caught flat-footed by announcement from both the Russians and the Chinese that they possess hypersonic missile technology that renders current U.S. missile defenses ineffective.

Needless to say, this has put the U.S. on a serious catch-up footing. It’s estimated that hypersonic aircraft and missiles could reach velocities up to five times the speed of sound. Defense experts noted that Vladimir Putin’s boast didn’t come with any hard proof, but it’s a known fact that both of these U.S. adversaries have been pursuing hypersonic technology for years.

There are many technological hurdles and variables to be overcome and addressed with hypersonic vehicles, and the U.S. has, admittedly, not solved all of them. Noteworthy is that China is reported to possess up to two or three times the number of hypersonic development and testing facilities, which adds credibility, but not certainty, to their claim of having mastered the technology deploying hypersonic missiles. 

​Learn more here.